The Creatures of Ray Harryhausen

Posted by grace lee

11 years ago

Ray Harryhausen — pupil of King Kong’s Willis O’Brien and stop-motion animator for such classic monster adventure films as Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts — has always created the coolest monsters in Hollywood.

There was something lost when Hollywood gravitated away from stop-motion animation in favor of miniature sets and men in ape suits, or, even worse, the latex, taffy-fangs and colored corn syrup school of monster design that came around in the late 70’s. What was lost was living, breathing monsters — creatures that twitched and breathed and looked angry or bewildered. Although Harryhausen’s techniques seem technologically quaint now, his monsters, across the board, remain some of the most vivid and entertaining monsters to ever be bound to celluloid.

Harryhausen’s now 86, but someone should force him to keep working until the flesh of his hands turns into brittle corpse dust, for the good of all humanity. Check out this amazing grimoire of every single one of Harryhausen’s creations: you won’t be disappointed.